Meet the Blacktip Shark, Baltimore

Apparently a $74.6 million renovation wasn’t good enough for the Baltimore Aquarium – now they want to do another one. This week, Aquarium officials announced a planned $12.5 million coral reef exhibit, the beginning of a long-term rejuvenation project for one of the city’s biggest attractions. These fish-loving chumps just can’t get enough, can they?

The Wings in the Water exhibit – the big tank with the barracudas and sting/manta-rays that’s been there since the 80’s – is going to be replaced by what they’re calling Blacktip Reef. It’ll be a micro-replica of an Indo-Pacific barrier reef, and will feature blacktip sharks, whiptail rays and (my personal favorite) wobbegong sharks, among many others. The Aquarium plans to keep Calypso (the 400-pound sea turtle) and a couple other crowd-pleasers in the reef, but the other animals will be relocated in the museum or shipped to other parts of the country.

The thing I’m most excited for? A bubble extending into the tank that you’ll be able to walk into and be surrounded on three sides by sea life.

The new exhibit is slated to open by next summer – fingers crossed it’s actually on time.